Maldives magic
In Thailand the biggest holiday of the year is called Songkran and this year it created a four day weekend that was too good to let pass without a big plan. But what to do? An unexplored island, a new country and culture, perhaps something a little unusual? Yes, exactly, a perfect time to visit one of the most alluring and unknown destinations in this part of the world. The Maldives. But where exactly is the Maldives, how do we get there, what will we do there and how do you even pronounce it?
Figuring out everything except the last item, we arrived late into Male airport on a Thursday night after a long transfer through Kuala Lumpur and were greeted by the helpful Mohammed who got us on the correct old wide wooden boat for the 10 minute transfer from the airport island to the capital city Male island. And after Mohammed organised our hotel transfer he was quick to clarify our last unknown, it is pronounced Mal-deeves, not the more familiar Mal-dives. What a relief to get that sorted.
Male is a pretty quiet laid back place. The town is modest in size and condition and it takes up the whole island. We wandered along the waterfront, through endless strands of parked motorbikes and past a few shady areas where there were metal framed reclining chairs with comfortable nets to sit in. Very unique and cool. And as we walked down to the ferry terminals where all the boats were already coming and going we saw perhaps as a taste of things to come, many beautiful colourful fish swimming just below us off the pier.
We found the artificial beach area where we saw the local kids and women enjoying a splash in the water, most women swimming fully dressed in long dark chador and head scarf outfit. We had breakfast upstairs overlooking the beach and laughed over the strange situation where the waiter brought out 3 coffees, all different, and three breakfasts for us when our orders seemed fairly clear and there were only two of us. Excellent food and total cost for the three of us was about $14.
But the blinding sun was heating up Male and even by 0800 it was over 30 degrees with little shade and a hot sticky breathless air. That familiar tropical dripping melting feeling had overtaken us, forcing us to bravely push on, despite the challenges.
Down to the markets on the waterfront, first to the covered fruit and veggie market where we saw many new items, including huge bunches of small bananas, tiny little capsicums, sweet little mangoes, long spiky cucumbers and a coconut, banana and honey stick that one seller called chocolate and another called candy but was a delicious little taste treat. The fish section was great, all dried or smoked, some salted, baby tuna, wahu, many other varieties, shapes and sizes with the vendors all willing to slice off a bit for us to taste, everyone friendly and saying hello, no hassling or selling to us. The whole scene was totally delightful.
Then into the fish market, quiet this time of day, but still good piles of colourful fish, including mackerel, skipjack tuna and huge yellow fin tuna. The highlight was the fish mongers who used a sharp knife and magic steel gloves to quickly skin, clean, gut, slice and dice fish after fish for the waiting shoppers. Quite a scene.
Male is not a modern cosmopolitan city, that’s for sure. It has about 120,000 people, a third of the country’s population, but the city is relatively clean, featuring many brightly painted buildings and an endless stream of motorbikes and scooters parked or motoring down the narrow streets. Most women wear the long modest chador-like gowns with scarves covering their faces while the men dress in western clothes, although some wore the wrap-around sarong found in India and elsewhere.
We walked past Jumhooree Maidhan, the main park in front of the Presidential Palace, with its unkempt dusty appearance and huge flag pole proudly flying the Maldives colours, into the Sultan’s Park, which is now a rundown botanical garden, to the modest 17th century Friday Mosque surrounded by a very cool cemetery with its picturesque headstones, and finally back to our hotel, three solid hours of absorbing all the colour and flavours of Male without fainting from the heat. And we loved what we saw!
The background facts of this amazing country gives pause for thought – the Maldives are comprised of 1200 coral islands (200 of which are inhabited) grouped in a double chain of 27 atolls, spread out over 90,000 kms with the highest point less than two metres. They say the climate never varies between 26 and 36 degrees but is very humid, relief sometimes given by the ocean breezes. The population is now about 320,000, making it one of the smallest independent countries in the world.
Having explored Male we jumped on a ferry to the airport island where our Maldivian Air Taxi waited for us. Out to a pier and without hesitation we climbed into a little 19 seater twin prop with the huge floats replacing the wheels. The excitement was high, the takeoff was fast and the views were immediately spectacular. We passed over the city of Male with its modest buildings covering the small round island, then climbed up as we headed south, over endless coral reefs, most of them round with brilliant shades of turquoise, looking like a collection of vast sparkling opals spread out across the shallow blue seas below us. We took countless photos, couldn’t believe the raw natural beauty below us, truly stunning.
After a mesmerising 35 minutes we landed on the shallow water inside a large atoll and taxied up to the long jetty of our resort, the Chaaya Lagoon Hakuraa Huraa Resort. The long walk down the jetty was punishing as the temperature was 36 degrees but with the reflection off the water and lack of breeze it seemed all of that and more.
Our bungalow out on another pier was suspended on stilts over crystal clear water a metre deep with a large glass floor plate where we could look down on the coral and the fish swimming below us. And we saw many brightly coloured fish doing exactly that.
Our exploration of the tiny island included finding the Sunset Bar that strangely closes an hour before sunset and the Tsunami Assembly Point, which was conveniently close to our bungalow but lacked any special features other than it was the highest point on the island at about one metre above sea level.
In the shallow clear lagoon behind our suspended bungalow we saw from the boardwalk a small reef shark, probably less than a metre long, weaving aimlessly between sand and surface, perhaps looking for its next morsel. And this within 10 metres of our swimming area down our back steps.
The afternoon and evening was absorbed by swimming off our back deck, sunset drinks at the main bar, the buffet dinner and cultural dancing by men wearing funny sailor hats. But what a great day, we saw a fair amount of Male in the morning, enjoyed a memorable seaplane trip over the breathtakingly beautiful atolls and were welcomed by our ocean bungalow. Yes, it was stinking hot but worth it a million times over.